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Category Institute News and Events

Celebrating Three Exceptional Careers at UMass Boston Gerontology

UMass Boston Gerontology will be forever changed by the contributions of Jan Mutchler, Jeffrey Burr, and Ellen Birchander, all of whom will retire in 2025. This month, current and former colleagues and students gathered to celebrate the careers of these instrumental leaders.

Gerontology as a Team Sport: Innovations in Aging Forum Shows the Power of Collaboration

The Innovations in Aging Forum invited special guests from the Gerontological Society of America to learn about the work being done by the Gerontology Department and the Gerontology Institute, as well as their partners.

The Gerontology Institute Welcomes Dr. Michelle Putnam as Director

The Gerontology Institute at UMass Boston welcomes Dr. Michelle Putnam as its new director, beginning January 27, 2025.

“I love the Gerontology Institute. It’s such a storied institution and important place,” Putnam says. “It’s a privilege for me to serve as the director of one of the first institutes solely focused on gerontological research in the United States.”

Jan Mutchler to Retire as Director of the Gerontology Institute

During a tenure that saw record-breaking fundraising and strengthened connections, Mutchler created significant impact for the Institute. On January 25, 2025, Jan Mutchler will retire as the director of the Gerontology Institute and as professor of gerontology at University of… Continue Reading →

New Study: Medicaid Reimbursements Fail to Meet Actual Costs of Caring for Medicaid Nursing Home Residents

For each dollar a nursing home spends providing daily care to a Medicaid recipient, the average nursing home receives just 82 cents in reimbursement. This was the top-level finding of a study published this week, led by multiple researchers, including… Continue Reading →

Doctoral candidate wins grant from family fund dedicated to studying aging in Asian-Americans

Gerontology doctoral candidate Cindy Bui will spend the summer of 2023 interviewing older Vietnamese immigrants in Greater Boston about their caregiving experiences—if they’ve cared for their own older family members and what they expect for their own care as they… Continue Reading →

Gerontology programs to join health sciences college on July 1, 2023

UMass Boston’s gerontology program—including the academic department, research institute, and four centers—will join the Robert and Donna Manning College of Nursing and Health Sciences on July 1, 2023. The transition comes as part of a campus-wide reorganization effort led over… Continue Reading →

Inaugural Caro Scholar aims to honor her immigrant parents by helping older, underserved adults

After earning an undergraduate degree in biology at Lesley University in 2017, Adriana Hernandez worked for a few years at Boston Medical Center, supporting a research study by collecting basic health data from patients. Along the way, she realized she… Continue Reading →

Caitlin Coyle named director of Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging

Caitlin Coyle, PhD ’14, has been appointed director of the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging (CSDRA) at UMass Boston’s Gerontology Institute. She succeeds Jan Mutchler, PhD, the center’s founding director. Mutchler was named director of the Gerontology… Continue Reading →

Meet a researcher: Jan Mutchler

Many of the doctoral students who have worked with Jan Mutchler over the years tell her they came to gerontology one of two ways—either they were close to a grandparent as they were growing up, or they worked with older… Continue Reading →

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